LLAMA FARMS CAN BE A LUCRATIVE VENTURE

ALTO, Mich. -- "Senior Supreme" lives up to the name. When he appears in the barnyard, females in this northern Michigan llama herd flock like groupies around a rock star.

Poor "Punkin," a gelded male that poses no competition with the ladies, submits to Senior's obligatory show of dominance. A heck of a way to treat a herd member so loved he was picked to be flower-bearer at his owners' wedding last summer.

But, Senior is the prime breeding male among the 35-animal herd, says owner Dorane Strouse, 44, who puts the regal animal's value at somewhere between $35,000 and $40,000. With rank goes privilege, even among llamas, he notes.

Strouse retired four years ago from an executive vice presidency at a Grand Rapids insurance firm to raise llamas full time after he learned what a lucrative venture it can be.

He says the value of his herd has increased about 25 percent each year, with people now willing to pay up to $8,000 for a weanling female and nearly twice that for one that has been bred.

"Demand still exceeds the supply," he said. "Since they are so easy and inexpensive to raise, a lot of horse people are getting into llamas now."

The appealing animals are fast becoming a craze among well-heeled "hobby farmers," Strouse says, in part because there are tax advantages and also because of the social aspect of owning such pricey animals.

He estimates there are now about 12,000 llamas in the United States and Canada. Most of them are descended from a herd imported in the 1920s by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst for San Simeon, his castle home in California.

"Llamas are moving West to East like a lot of trends," Strouse said. There are about 60 llama owners in Michigan. California has at least 600 owners, according to the International Llama Association in Bozeman, Mont.

A llama herd can be depreciated for tax purposes over three to five years and an investment tax credit may be taken on it, but to be ranked as commercial, a herd must include at least three breeding females, Strouse said.

Imports were halted in the 1930s because of concern over hoof and mouth disease.

Aside from the appeal of their long eyelashes, banana-shaped ears and a vaguely camel-like muzzle, llamas also are easy to train and keep.

Without pasture, one bale of hay can last an adult llama up to 10 days and a single acre of mediocre grazing land can support up to five of them, he said, putting the average annual cost per animal at about $300.

Livestock laws in most cities and suburbs would bar them as backyard pets, but llamas require so little space that rural dwellers with as little as four acres can accommodate a commercial herd, Strouse said.

"They are naturally potty-trained," he points out. "They pick one spot in the yard and the whole herd uses it. Punkin comes into the house and I've often taken him to local schools and he never would go inside."

The animals' reputation for spitting is ill-deserved, Strouse said. Females exercise this option to discourage persistent males when they already have been bred, and occasionally it comes up during territorial disputes or over feeding order.

"Females are usually the more aggressive . . . they rarely let a male eat first, for instance," Strouse said.

In their native Peru, llamas are primarily used as pack animals and combed for their soft, downy wool. North American llama fans are most interested in them as pets, for show and as breeding stock, since the wool -- which sells in the United States for about $2 an ounce -- is only popular with hand spinners, he said.

Adult llamas stand about 48 inches at the shoulder and can weigh up to 500 pounds, with little obvious size difference between the sexes. They make excellent trail companions for hikers and back-packers, he said, and will haul about one-quarter of their body weight. If overloaded, they simply refuse to stand up, Strouse said.

In as few as five repetitions Strouse says he can teach the adults to sit on command. Learning to pull a pony cart is a snap for these little kinfolks of the camel. Llamas are also excellent travelers, riding easily in a horse trailer or van, sitting down the entire way with little need for food or water.

In the West, where the animals are most popular, they are fast replacing horses and mules on park trails. That's because they are much more sure-footed and require far less food than their equine counterparts.